OnAppearing different on iOS and Android - xamarin

Question

I have found that on iOS, OnAppearing is called when the page literally appears on the screen, whereas on Android, it's called when it's created.
I'm using this event to lazily construct an expensive to construct view but obviously the Android behaviour defeats this.
Is there some way of knowing on Android when a screen literally appears on the screen?

Answer 1

You can use the event:
this.Appearing += YourPageAppearing;
Otherwise, you should use the methods of the Application class that contains the lifecycle methods:
protected override void OnStart()
{
Debug.WriteLine ("OnStart");
}
protected override void OnSleep()
{
Debug.WriteLine ("OnSleep");
}
protected override void OnResume()
{
Debug.WriteLine ("OnResume");
}

Answer 2

On Android, Xamarin.Forms.Page.OnAppearing is called immediately before the page's view is shown to user (not when the page is "created" (constructed)).
If you want an initial view to appear quickly, by omitting an expensive sub-view, use a binding to make that view's IsVisible initially be "false". This will keep it out of the visual tree, avoiding most of the cost of building it. Place the (invisible) view in a grid cell, whose dimensions are constant (either in DPs or "*" - anything other than "Auto".) So that layout will be "ready" for that view, when you make it visible.
APPROACH 1:
Now you just need a binding in view model that will change IsVisible to "true".
The simplest hack is to, in OnAppearing, fire an action that will change that variable after 250 ms.
APPROACH 2:
The clean alternative is to create a custom page renderer, and override "draw".
Have draw, after calling base.draw, check an action property on your page.
If not null, invoke that action, then clear it (so only happens once).
I do this by inheriting from a custom page base class:
XAML for each of my pages (change "ContentPage" to "exodus:ExBasePage"):
<exodus:ExBasePage
xmlns:exodus="clr-namespace:Exodus;assembly=Exodus"
x:Class="YourNamespace.YourPage">
...
</exodus:ExBasePage>
xaml.cs:
using Exodus;
// After creating page, change "ContentPage" to "ExBasePage".
public partial class YourPage : ExBasePage
{
...
my custom ContentPage. NOTE: Includes code not needed for this, related to iOS Safe Area and Android hardward back button:
using Xamarin.Forms;
using Xamarin.Forms.PlatformConfiguration.iOSSpecific;
namespace Exodus
{
public abstract partial class ExBasePage : ContentPage
{
public ExBasePage()
{
// Each sub-class calls InitializeComponent(); not needed here.
ExBasePage.SetupForLightStatusBar( this );
}
// Avoids overlapping iOS status bar at top, and sets a dark background color.
public static void SetupForLightStatusBar( ContentPage page )
{
page.On<Xamarin.Forms.PlatformConfiguration.iOS>().SetUseSafeArea( true );
// iOS NOTE: Each ContentPage must set its BackgroundColor to black or other dark color (when using LightContent for status bar).
//page.BackgroundColor = Color.Black;
page.BackgroundColor = Color.FromRgb( 0.3, 0.3, 0.3 );
}
// Per-platform ExBasePageRenderer uses these.
public System.Action NextDrawAction;
/// <summary>
/// Override to do something else (or to do nothing, i.e. suppress back button).
/// </summary>
public virtual void OnHardwareBackButton()
{
// Normal content page; do normal back button behavior.
global::Exodus.Services.NavigatePopAsync();
}
}
}
renderer in Android project:
using System;
using Android.Content;
using Android.Views;
using Android.Graphics;
using Xamarin.Forms;
using Xamarin.Forms.Platform.Android;
using Exodus;
using Exodus.Android;
[assembly: ExportRenderer( typeof( ExBasePage ), typeof( ExBasePageRenderer ) )]
namespace Exodus.Android
{
public class ExBasePageRenderer : PageRenderer
{
public ExBasePageRenderer( Context context ) : base( context )
{
}
protected override void OnElementChanged( ElementChangedEventArgs<Page> e )
{
base.OnElementChanged( e );
var page = Element as ExBasePage;
if (page != null)
page.firstDraw = true;
}
public override void Draw( Canvas canvas )
{
try
{
base.Draw( canvas );
var page = Element as ExBasePage;
if (page?.NextDrawAction != null)
{
page.NextDrawAction();
page.NextDrawAction = null;
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
// TBD: Got Disposed exception on Android Bitmap, after rotating phone (in simulator).
// TODO: Log exception.
Console.WriteLine( "ExBasePageRenderer.Draw exception: " + ex.ToString() );
}
}
}
}
To do some action after the first time the page is drawn:
public partial class YourPage : ExBasePage
{
protected override void OnAppearing()
{
// TODO: OnPlatform code - I don't have it handy.
// On iOS, we call immediately "DeferredOnAppearing();"
// On Android, we set this field, and it is done in custom renderer.
NextDrawAction = DeferredOnAppearing;
}
void DeferredOnAppearing()
{
// Whatever you want to happen after page is drawn first time:
// ((MyViewModel)BindingContext).ExpensiveViewVisible = true;
// Where MyViewModel contains:
// public bool ExpensiveViewVisible { get; set; }
// And your XAML contains:
// <ExpensiveView IsVisible={Binding ExpensiveViewVisible}" ... />
}
}
NOTE: I do this differently on iOS, because Xamarin Forms on iOS (incorrectly - not to spec) calls OnAppearing AFTER the page is drawn.
So I have OnPlatform logic. On iOS, OnAppearing immediately calls DeferredOnAppearing. On Android, the line shown is done.
Hopefully iOS will eventually be fixed to call OnAppearing BEFORE,
for consistency between the two platforms.
If so, I would then add a similar renderer for iOS.
(The current iOS implementation means there is no way to update a view before it appears a SECOND time, due to popping the nav stack.
instead, it appears with outdated content, THEN you get a chance
to correct it. This is not good.)